PublixTheatre Caravan To Be Released From Italian Prison

8/13 PublixTheatre Caravan Update

It is now confirmed that all twenty-five Caravan participants will be released from pre-trial detention within the next few days. Twenty people have been freed already, and are in transit back to their home countries, including two U.S. citizens (among them Susanna Thomas). The remaining five (three male Austrians and two others of unknown citizenship) will be kept in prison until Thursday due to "formal mistakes" in their filing procedures. The release indicates that there was insufficent evidence to keep them in pretrial detention, but it remains uncertain who (if anyone) will ultimately face trial.

Notably, the judges appear to have questioned the Caravan as a group, rather than dealing with cases individually, as had been feared. The later scenario would have created the potential of splitting them into "good protesters vs. bad protesters" based on stereotypes of their alleged political affiliations.

The status (and exact number) of other Genoa political prisoners remains in question; efforts must be focused on securing their releases as well!